Metspitzer wrote:
.....,
He wants to just remove the old guts and update it to circuit
breakers. The bottom left fuse block is hot on both sides even with
the fuses removed. In the extreme lower left there is a fuse block
that is not being used.

Since he is an old friend, I offered to have a look at it for him,
but I really don't know what to tell him short of tearing the house
down and start from scratch. I know that is not what he wants to
hear. The insulation on the wire looks so brittle I don't want to
touch it. The house is in rural Georgia.

I don't know the answers to the electrical questions, but if your friend is
planning on renting the property out, he may want to consider having a
licensed electrician do a whole new service or at least do the changeover to
circuit breakers.

One reason is that since it is an income property, the cost should be a
deductible business expense for tax purposes. Another reason is that his
insurance carrier may require that. And, a third reason has to do with
liability issues in the event of a fire etc. in the future -- an insurance
company may deny the claim if he (or an unlicensed person) did the
electrical work; and he or any unlicensed person who did the electrical work
could be personally liable for any damages or harm that results.

He may already know about these types of issues if he has other rental
properties; but, if this is his first venture into the rental/landlord
business, he may want to start learning as much as he can about that. Once
way to get more information etc. would be to join a local real estate
investor association or group. Here is a link to some that are in Georgia:
http://www.creonline.com/real-estate-clubs/ga.html . I think that usually
the groups that have "REIA" (Real Estate Investor Association) in their name
tend to have more useful information a resources for their members.